Search Results

Paul Emmanuel TRANSITIONS (2009) Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa Exhibition view of Transitions , Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa, 2009 Transitions , Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, Free State province, South Africa 5 February – 8 April 2009 ‘Transitions’ documents shifting male identity. This was the 2nd showing of this touring solo museum exhibition comprising an installation of 5 original drawings, courtesy of the Spier Contemporary Collection and the short film ‘3SAI: A Rite of Passage’ (2008). ‘Transitions’ premiered at The Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg South Africa in 2008 and debuted internationally at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington DC, USA in 2010. Art Source South Africa are managers of Emmanuel's ‘Transitions’ project. Artists statement In late 2004 I was exploring how the military influenced and perpetuated notions of masculinity in South Africa. One morning, while thinking about moments of change, I decided to photograph an actual military recruit head shaving while it was happening – to witness to an unfolding drama. After some research, I discovered that there were only two remaining military bases in South Africa which still perform this obligatory ‘rite of passage’ on their premises, one in Oudtshoorn and the other, Third South African Infantry Battalion (3SAI) in Kimberley. I phoned the Kimberley base, spoke to the Officer-in-Command and arranged a visit to photograph head shavings from the January 2005 intake. I remember feeling apprehensive of what I would find. I did not do military service. I only had references to military experiences told to me by my older brother and friends, who described their head shaving experiences of the apartheid military regime of the 1980s – their stories of feeling dehumanised, lots of shouting, indifference, bigotry and fear. Instead, I found a very different setting ... quiet lawns with well tended flower beds full of roses. Lines of recruits waiting patiently. No shouting. No authoritarianism. No evidence of the violent breaking down of the human spirit. Compared with the horror stories related to South Africa’s past, the equanimity of the scene was arresting. I was spellbound. These liminal moments of transition, when a young man either voluntarily – or is forced to – let go of one identity and take on a new identity as State Property with an assigned Force Number, prompted me to ask many questions: What was I actually witnessing? What is a “Rite of Passage” and how have similar “rituals” helped to form and perpetuate identities and belief systems throughout history? Why was I so powerfully drawn to and transfixed by these dramatic spectacles of subtle change and moments of suspended possibility and impossibility? And so began an intensely reflexive outward and inward journey, in and beyond my studio, which was to last four long years ... Related Content Publication ‘Transitions’, Art Source South Africa, 2008 Short film ‘3SAI: A Rite of Passage’, 2008 Documentary ‘How the Transitions Drawings Were Made’, 2011 Exhibition ‘Transitions’, Apartheid Museum, 2008 Exhibition ‘Transitions’, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, 2010

Paul Emmanuel TRANSITIONS (2009) Spier Gallery, Spier Estate, Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa Transitions 3 (detail), 2007 Original drawing hand-incised into exposed, colour photographic paper 48 x 48 cm Spier Collection. Courtesy of Art Source South Africa Transitions , Spier Old Wine Cellar Gallery, Spier Estate, Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa 26 November 2009 – 15 February 2010 and 25 February – 31 March 2010 ‘Transitions’ documents shifting male identity. This was the 6th showing of this touring solo museum exhibition comprising an installation of 5 original drawings, courtesy of the Spier Contemporary Collection and the short film ‘3SAI: A Rite of Passage’ (2008). ‘Transitions’ premiered at The Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg South Africa in 2008 and debuted internationally at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington DC, USA in 2010. Art Source South Africa are managers of Emmanuel's ‘Transitions’ project. Artists statement In late 2004 I was exploring how the military influenced and perpetuated notions of masculinity in South Africa. One morning, while thinking about moments of change, I decided to photograph an actual military recruit head shaving while it was happening – to witness to an unfolding drama. After some research, I discovered that there were only two remaining military bases in South Africa which still perform this obligatory ‘rite of passage’ on their premises, one in Oudtshoorn and the other, Third South African Infantry Battalion (3SAI) in Kimberley. I phoned the Kimberley base, spoke to the Officer-in-Command and arranged a visit to photograph head shavings from the January 2005 intake. I remember feeling apprehensive of what I would find. I did not do military service. I only had references to military experiences told to me by my older brother and friends, who described their head shaving experiences of the apartheid military regime of the 1980s – their stories of feeling dehumanised, lots of shouting, indifference, bigotry and fear. Instead, I found a very different setting ... quiet lawns with well tended flower beds full of roses. Lines of recruits waiting patiently. No shouting. No authoritarianism. No evidence of the violent breaking down of the human spirit. Compared with the horror stories related to South Africa’s past, the equanimity of the scene was arresting. I was spellbound. These liminal moments of transition, when a young man either voluntarily – or is forced to – let go of one identity and take on a new identity as State Property with an assigned Force Number, prompted me to ask many questions: What was I actually witnessing? What is a “Rite of Passage” and how have similar “rituals” helped to form and perpetuate identities and belief systems throughout history? Why was I so powerfully drawn to and transfixed by these dramatic spectacles of subtle change and moments of suspended possibility and impossibility? And so began an intensely reflexive outward and inward journey, in and beyond my studio, which was to last four long years ... Related Content Exhibition ‘Transitions’, Apartheid Museum, 2008 Publication ‘Transitions’, Art Source South Africa, 2008 Short film ‘3SAI: A Rite of Passage’, 2008 Documentary ‘How the Transitions Drawings Were Made’, 2011

Paul Emmanuel THE LOST MEN GRAHAMSTOWN (2004) 10th anniversary of South Africa's democracy, 1820 Settlers National Monument, Gunfire Hill, Makhanda, Eastern Cape, South Africa Carbon Dad 2017 , 2020, hand incised, perforated carbon paper, carbon residue, perspex rail, 110 x 440 cm The Lost Men Grahamstown , counter-memorial, tenth anniversary of South Africa’s democracy, 1820 Settlers National Monument, Gunfire Hill, Mkhanda (formerly known as Grahamstown), Eastern Cape, South Africa 1 – 10 July 2004 This once-only counter-memorial was temporarily installed adjacent to the 1820 Settlers' National Monument, Grahamstown, South Africa in July 2004 on the 10th anniversary of South Africa's democracy. The installation formed part of the Grahamstown National Arts Festival's main programme. Sourced from public archives, the names and military ranks of men who had died in the 1779 – 1879 Xhosa Wars fought in the Grahamstown area, were pressed into Emmanuel's skin. Xhosa names however, could only be sourced from the journals of white soldiers and were each recorded as a single name only. Supported by The National Arts Council of South Africa and The Grahamstown National Arts Festival. Related Content Counter-memorial ‘The Lost Men Mozambique’, Maputo, 2007 Counter-memorial ‘The Lost Men France’, Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, 2014 Interview Paul Emmanuel, MNet TV, Kyknet, 2004 Exhibition ‘Men and Monuments’, Wits Art Museum, 2020 Intervention ‘Rising-falling’, General Louis Botha monument, 2021

Paul Emmanuel SUBSTANCE OF SHADOWS (2021) University of Johannesburg Art Gallery, Gauteng, South Africa Carbon Dad 2017 , 2020, hand incised, perforated carbon paper, carbon residue, perspex rail, 110 x 440 cm Substance of Shadows , University of Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa 11 September – 2 October 2021 Inspired by the Human Shadow Etched in Stone at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Hiroshima, Japan, this solo exhibition tracks Emmanuel's continued personal fascination with the tenuous nature of memory. The only certainty is change. We try to hold onto memories in the hope of maintaining some coherence and continuity, but our memories are largely inventions and they too change over time. We commemorate our invented pasts in an attempt to fix them in the present. This exhibition is a collection of works scratched by hand into delicate carbon 'paper' or film. These carbon 'shadows' are all metaphors for carbon copies and products of one of life's greatest narratives – the carbon cycle. Carbon is an element in nature. Related Content Intervention ‘Rising-falling’, General Louis Botha monument, Pretoria, South Africa, 15 June 2021 Publication ‘Substance of Shadows’, texts by Mark Auslander, Ellen Schattschneider and Paul Emmanuel, PDF Exhibition ‘Transitions’, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA, 2010

Paul Emmanuel MEN AND MONUMENTS (2020-21) Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa The Lost Men Mozambique , 2007, nine pigment-printed photographs on voile, 300 x 100 cm each Men and Monuments , Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa 3 – 18 March 2020 and 6 – 30 April 2021 For the past 16 years, in an ongoing project titled ‘The Lost Men’, Emmanuel has challenged conventions around war memorials. He has questioned which soldiers are memorialised and which erased, and the stereotypes around soldiers and masculinity. In contrast to accepted practices where war memorials are erected using robust, permanent and immovable materials such as granite, he commemorates the forgotten using his own transient and vulnerable body to transform himself into a living, but temporary war memorial. Artworks from all three iterations of ‘The Lost Men’ are featured in ‘Men and Monuments’. A monograph titled ‘Paul Emmanuel’, edited by Professor Karen von Veh and with writings by Professor emerita Annette Becker, Professor Karen von Veh and Associate Professor emerita Pamela Allara, was published by the museum. Related content Publication Paul Emmanuel, 2020. Texts by Annette Becker, Karen von Veh and Pamela Allara. Edited by Karen von Veh. Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg. Softback, 72 pp plus cover, 260 x 240 x 7 mm. ISBN 978-0-620-87116-7 Exhibition ‘Cartographies of Becoming’, Sylt Foundation, Germany. 24 December 2021 – 30 December 2022 Counter-memorial ‘The Lost Men France’, Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, France, 1 July – 1 October 2014 Counter-memorial ‘The Lost Men Mozambique’, Catembe Ferry Jetty, Maputo, Mozambique, 24 April – 12 May, 2007 Counter-memorial ‘The Lost Men Grahamstown’, 1820 Settler’s National Monument, Makhanda, South Africa, 1 – 10 July, 2004

Paul Emmanuel AFTER-IMAGE (2005) Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa Airstrip , 2002. Copperplate drypoint, mezzotint etching, watercolour pigments on 300 gsm Somerset paper, 56 x 76 cm. Edition 5 After-image , Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa 5 – 29 April 2005 The third showing of this touring solo exhibition comprising early etchings and lithographs, photographs from ‘The Lost Men Grahamstown’ (2004) and a major drawing also titled ‘After-image’ (2004). This drawing is permanently housed in the main reception room of Villa Arcadia as part of the Hollard Collection of South African Contemporary Art. ‘After-image’ was exhibited in South Africa at the US Art Gallery, Stellenbosch, Western Cape, The Old Fort at Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, Gauteng, Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, Free State and Villa Arcadia, Hollard House, Johannesburg, Gauteng. An illustrated, colour catalogue with essay by Julia Charlton was printed and published by US Art Gallery. Related Content Publication ‘Paul Emmanuel: After-image’, US Art Gallery, 2004 Interview ‘Paul Emmanuel’, MNet TV, Kyknet, (Afrikaans & English), South Africa, 2004 Exhibition ‘After-image’, US Art Gallery, 2004

Paul Emmanuel TRANSITIONS (2009) William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa Transitions 4 (detail), 2007. Original drawing hand-incised into exposed, colour photographic paper, 78 x 305 cm. Spier Collection. Courtesy of Art Source South Africa Transitions , William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberley, Northern Cape province, South Africa 15 April – 15 May 2009 ‘Transitions’ documents shifting male identity. This was the 3rd showing of this touring solo museum exhibition comprising an installation of 5 original drawings, courtesy of the Spier Contemporary Collection and the short film ‘3SAI: A Rite of Passage’ (2008). ‘Transitions’ premiered at The Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg South Africa in 2008 and debuted internationally at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington DC, USA in 2010. Art Source South Africa are managers of Emmanuel's ‘Transitions’ project. Artists statement In late 2004 I was exploring how the military influenced and perpetuated notions of masculinity in South Africa. One morning, while thinking about moments of change, I decided to photograph an actual military recruit head shaving while it was happening – to witness to an unfolding drama. After some research, I discovered that there were only two remaining military bases in South Africa which still perform this obligatory ‘rite of passage’ on their premises, one in Oudtshoorn and the other, Third South African Infantry Battalion (3SAI) in Kimberley. I phoned the Kimberley base, spoke to the Officer-in-Command and arranged a visit to photograph head shavings from the January 2005 intake. I remember feeling apprehensive of what I would find. I did not do military service. I only had references to military experiences told to me by my older brother and friends, who described their head shaving experiences of the apartheid military regime of the 1980s – their stories of feeling dehumanised, lots of shouting, indifference, bigotry and fear. Instead, I found a very different setting ... quiet lawns with well tended flower beds full of roses. Lines of recruits waiting patiently. No shouting. No authoritarianism. No evidence of the violent breaking down of the human spirit. Compared with the horror stories related to South Africa’s past, the equanimity of the scene was arresting. I was spellbound. These liminal moments of transition, when a young man either voluntarily – or is forced to – let go of one identity and take on a new identity as State Property with an assigned Force Number, prompted me to ask many questions: What was I actually witnessing? What is a “Rite of Passage” and how have similar “rituals” helped to form and perpetuate identities and belief systems throughout history? Why was I so powerfully drawn to and transfixed by these dramatic spectacles of subtle change and moments of suspended possibility and impossibility? And so began an intensely reflexive outward and inward journey, in and beyond my studio, which was to last four long years ... Related Content Publication ‘Transitions’, Art Source South Africa, 2008 Short film ‘3SAI: A Rite of Passage’, 2008 Documentary ‘How the Transitions Drawings Were Made’, 2011 Exhibition ‘Transitions’, Apartheid Museum, 2008 Exhibition ‘Transitions’, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, 2010

Independently produced catalogues and books featuring works produced by Paul Emmanuel Paul Emmanuel, 2020. Texts by Annette Becker, Karen von Veh and Pamela Allara. Edited by Karen von Veh. Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg. Softback, 72 pp plus cover, 260 x 240 x 7 mm. ISBN 978-0-620-87116-7 ‘Paul Emmanuel: Remnants’, 2017 ‘Paul Emmanuel: Remnants’, 2016 ‘Paul Emmanuel: Transitions Multiples’, 2011 ‘Paul Emmanuel: Transitions Multiples’, 2011 ‘Paul Emmanuel: Transitions’, 2010 ‘Transitions’, 2008 ‘Paul Emmanuel: After-image’, 2004 ‘Imbali: Printmaking workshops with Paul Emmanuel at Fordsburg Artists Studios 2003, Funded by the Ford Foundation’, 2003 ‘Ekupholeni – Place of Healing. Printmaking workshops with Paul Emmanuel at Fordsburg Artists Studios, funded by the Ford Foundation’, 2001

Paul Emmanuel Artist Statement I would like to say that I try to portray the body as a site of metaphorical and literal struggle; and that I explore the way mental and physical landscapes interact in their construction of memories and identities. I would like to say that I am committed to deconstructing limiting cultural assumptions concerning masculinity. But the truth is there is no such cleverness. My explanations are all retrospective. I am not sure if my work comes from a profound intellectual grasp of social realities. It comes out of being a sensual participant in the world and sometimes it feels as if I have only a tenuous grasp of reality. It is inspired by feelings and aesthetics rather than words and ideas. When I do have ideas, they are not grand literary constructs, profound philosophies or urgent political messages. My ideas are simple frameworks within which I can move. They act as a kind of scaffolding, not as descriptions, explanations or maps. They allow me to perform my feelings through the labour of intense, rigorous, time-consuming mark making. The photographic references I work from are devices that allow emotionally laden textures to emerge on a surface. The obsessive mark making is the only real control I have over confusing feelings about my own identity, gender, sexuality and power. Categories blur and it feels as if I dissolve into the spaces between the marks. The only thing that is certain is change. I hardly ever know where I am going – it is a wonder that forms appear at all. When I was younger, I was seduced by the potential of something emerging out of the soft, velvety blackness. I have always worked reductively from dark to light. The process feels insubstantial and tenuous and often leaves me feeling scared and uncertain about what is trying to emerge and whether I can keep going. The viewer may embed meaning in these surfaces and they can never be right or wrong as I do not assume to know the meaning myself.

Paul Emmanuel THE LOST MEN (2009) Sylt Foundation, Rantum, Sylt Island, Germany A South African on Sylt, 2009, Deutsche Welle TV, Berlin, Germany, 6 min 28 sec The Lost Men , Sylt Foundation, Rantum, Sylt Island, Germany July – September 2009 Emmanuel was invited to the Sylt Foundation as an artist-in-residence from 26 May to 26 June 2009. The Sylt Foundation is located on the island of Sylt in the North Sea, off the coast of Germany. During this residency, the existing memorial installations of ‘The Lost Men Grahamstown’ (2004) and ‘The Lost Men Mozambique’ (2007) were installed on the island, to be seen by visitors to the Meerkabarett Cultural Festival, which takes place annually from 6 July to 23 August 2009. Related Content Counter-memorial ‘The Lost Men Grahamstown’, 2004 Counter-memorial ‘The Lost Men Mozambique’ 2007 Counter-memorial ‘The Lost Men France’, 2014

Paul Emmanuel AFTER-IMAGE (2005) Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, South Africa The Lost Men Grahamstown 2 , 2004. Pigment-printed photograph on 300 gsm photorag paper. 100 x 203,5 cm. Edition 5 After-image, The Old Fort, Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa 17 January – 10 February 2005 The second showing of this touring solo exhibition comprising early etchings and lithographs, photographs from ‘The Lost Men Grahamstown’ (2004) and a major drawing also titled ‘After-image’ (2004). This drawing is permanently housed in the main reception room of Villa Arcadia as part of the Hollard Collection of South African Contemporary Art. ‘After-image’ was exhibited in South Africa at the US Art Gallery, Stellenbosch, Western Cape, The Old Fort at Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, Gauteng, Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, Free State and Villa Arcadia, Hollard House, Johannesburg, Gauteng. An illustrated, colour catalogue with essay by Julia Charlton was printed and published by US Art Gallery. Related Content Publication ‘Paul Emmanuel: After-image’, US Art Gallery, 2004 Interview ‘Paul Emmanuel’, MNet TV, Kyknet, (Afrikaans & English), South Africa, 2004 Exhibition ‘After-image’, US Art Gallery, 2004

AIR ON THE SKIN (2003) Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa Air on the Skin (detail), 2002. Original drawing hand-incised into black shoe polish on acrylic on 285 gsm Fabriano Rosaspina Avorio paper, 70 x 304 cm. Standard Bank Corporate Art Collection Air on the Skin , Standard Bank Art Gallery, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa 28 January – 15 March 2003 The Standard Bank Gallery hosted an exhibition of the major drawing ‘Air on the Skin’ (2002) (Standard Bank Collection) in their ground floor exhibition space. The Johannesburg public also had the chance to view a sister work of the same title and year from the Sasol Collection. ‘Air on the Skin’ won first prize at the Schumann-Sasol Wax in Art competition (2002). The show also featured a selection of lithographs and etchings as well as page proofs from the artists’ book ‘Cathexis’. A private viewing of this show was also mounted at Fordsburg Artists Studios from 13 to 20 September 2002. Artist’s statement For me, Air on the Skin is – among many other things – about exposure. Clothes are our outer coverings; they determine what we want the world to see of us, either by circumstance or choice, forming first impressions. They are an outer ‘skin’, which, like the dried remnants of an insect exoskeleton or snake scales, are shed, washed, re-worn or replaced. They are intricately involved in our evolution and transformation. Shoe polish reflects the light and changes the surface appeal of shoes, bags, belts and other human accoutrements. Shoe polish also absorbs the light when left in its untampered form. In this work it has been layered over acrylic to create the deeply recessive matt blackness which gives this work its depth. I think of these landscapes not as depictions of physical spaces, but as renditions of inner landscapes. Related Content Exhibition ‘Pages from Cathexis’, Open Window Gallery, 2000